1 Corinthians chapter 11, beginning in verse 23. Verse 23, Paul writes, for I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you. that the Lord Jesus in the night in which he was betrayed took bread. And when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, this is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me. In the same way, he took the cup also after supper, saying, this cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. But a man must examine himself, and in so doing, he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself if he does not judge the body rightly. For this reason, many among you are weak and sick and a number asleep, and a number sleep. But if we judged ourselves rightly, we would not be judged. But when we are judged, we are disciplined by the Lord so that we will not be condemned along with the world. So then, my brethren, when you come together to eat, wait for one another. If anyone is hungry, let him eat at home so that you will not come together for judgment. The remaining matters I will arrange when I come. This time of year, we're thinking often about the incarnation and the birth of our Lord and Savior. We're thinking about the majestic concept of the historic construct that God came to this earth. That the Lord Jesus himself was revealed. God was revealed. Jesus took on flesh and walked among men and women just like you and I. We sing that hymn, Silent Night, thinking about the night of that birth, thinking about the joy of what it would mean that Christ would come to this very earth. It's not just that somebody came. It's not just that a person that maybe had some importance came. It was that God himself came to this very earth and lived among men and women like you and I. We know of that great purpose of his coming in living perfectly according to God's law. And ultimately he came. that he would go to the cross, that his body would be broken, and that his blood would be shed for sinners like you and I. He had to come, the God-man, he had to come and face this earth in all of its context in human flesh so that he would be the sacrifice. the appropriate sacrifice, the proper sacrifice, and he would show himself to be the only sacrifice for the sins of God's people. Think of all that Christ went through living among men and women like you and I and never sinning. Think of all that Christ went through to continually teach among God's people and for many of them to reject him. Think of all that he went through having to explain himself to his disciples who couldn't quite get it and understand. Think of all he went through while he was betrayed by one of his own, who was an emblem of the nation of Israel betraying him from long ago. Think of all that he went through as he was pronounced not to be found in guilt and yet he would have to pay the price for the guilty. Think of all that he went through being mocked and whipped and beaten. Think of all that he went through as He walked all the way to that hill, and they hung Him on that cross. In flesh and blood, just like you and I, He walked there with that cross upon His back for a little while, and then they stuck Him on it, and they hung Him there for all the world to see. Was it just so people could come together and have a big agape meal and they could eat too much and drink too much? Is that why he came? The Apostle Paul seeks to tell the church at Corinth, you're missing it, you're forgetting it. You're not thinking of it in proper perspective. Our overarching theme this morning, Paul reminded the Corinthians of the appropriate manner in the Lord's Supper. Paul reminded the Corinthians of the appropriate manner in the Lord's Supper. Firstly under that heading, the Lord's Supper is taken with the gathered body. The Lord's Supper is taken with the gathered body. His theme all the way along through the latter half of this chapter has been that they were not, as the church, waiting on one another. As one writer says, the unworthiness he had in mind was participating in the Lord's Supper in a way that failed to exhibit the unity of the church in Christ. that this was his meaning can be seen quite clearly in his exhortation in verses 33 and 34. So then, my brethren, when you come together to eat, wait for one another. If anyone is hungry, let him eat at home. This is not just about coming together for a meal, it is coming together for the Lord's supper that was inaugurated by the Lord himself. And he says to get this right in your mind benefits you in several ways. He wants them to note that if you don't get this right in your head that you will come to the Lord's supper in an unworthy manner. that there is an appropriate manner to come to the Lord, and it's not in the way that they've been doing it. You've forgotten who Jesus is. You've forgotten how he came. You've forgotten what he did. You've forgotten all about what Christ came to do and how he accomplished it, and you put that in the background, and you're all living superficially now, and it's all about your gluttonous and your drunkenness and all of the things that you want to do, and he says, no, that's not the Lord's Supper. Not only is this an overarching theme that the Lord's Supper is taken with the gathered body but it is explicit in the text. They were not waiting on one another and they were out of line with Christ's words. Paul here reminds us of the very words of Christ. He says, this is my body which is for you. This is the cup, drink this and remember it's for me. This blood of my covenant is for you. Interestingly there, the word you is not singular. It is a plural personal pronoun. you all as the body of Christ. He's saying, in our Southern vernacular, y'all need to understand. Y'all is the gathered body. Do this together as I died for you all. all the believers and you are represented in this local church. Jesus instructed them to take the bread and the cup together as he died for all his granted people from the Father. Remember the high priestly prayer of John 17 as we went through it? He died for these granted people, granted him by the Father, which Paul tells us in Ephesus is the church or bride of Christ. Do you realize who you are as this gathered body today? You are a local representation of the bride of Christ. This supper is representative of what Christ did for his church. Corinth had forgotten that. Corinth was thinking individually. Corinth was thinking single-mindedly. This was just about me and what I wanted. This is how some people become with their Bibles. It's me and my Bible. I'll worship where I want to, when I want to. I can take my Bible to the deer stand on the Lord's Day and worship God just the same. No, you cannot. You cannot. Not because there wouldn't be glorious things to see from the deer stand, but because that's not what God commanded. The same is true here of the Lord's Supper. You cannot come to this table and just think you are coming individually. You are coming to this table corporately as the very body of Christ represented here in this local church. Do you need to examine yourself? Yes, and we will deal with that. But ultimately, you don't come to the Lord's supper table just thinking individually. It's all about me, me and Jesus and myself. That's not good theology. It's not good Bible theology. So they were out of line with Christ's words. Letter B under our main heading. We said the Lord's Supper is taken with the gathered body. Letter B, the Lord's Supper is taken together before the Lord. It's taken with the gathered body and it's taken together before the Lord. They had gotten to where they were really not taking it in corporate worship. They had assumed a position that everything in worship could be considered as an individual activity. come so far that the Lord's Supper Table had become an individual activity and they were looking at the whole of worship as an individual activity. Is there an individual nature to it? Yes, because you have to be here as an individual. You have to be you. You can't be you and somebody else. That's not possible. And if you think it is, then we'll talk later. And we'll call the people with the little jacket. You can't be you and somebody else. You can just be you. So you do have to come here individually and yet you have to be thinking in a corporate context that you are the body of Christ represented in this local church. You can't come to worship and think it's an individual activity. We are the local representation of the people of God raising our voices in praise to him. When there is public prayer, we are praying together. We are listening to the scripture read together as the body of Christ. Well, just as they were looking at worship in an individual context, they had failed to recognize the corporate nature of the Lord's Supper. They weren't thinking about it in proper context. They had failed to recognize the implications of its corporate nature. As one writer says, that is to say, their offense violates the central sacred purpose of the Lord's Supper, honoring Christ for His work of salvation. How do we know they had forgotten that? Because he's already approached them about issues in the church which they had not dealt with. They had not dealt with the sin that was in the church that was prevalent and it was known. They were unwilling to deal with that and so then they came to the Lord's Supper and just celebrated as just another meal. They weren't thinking about the fact there's sin among them. There's sin in the camp and they are unwilling to deal with it. They're unwilling to even hold anyone accountable in the life of the church and yet they're coming to this meal and acting as though somehow in Christ they're doing right things and they're not. You can say all you want to about examining yourself individually, but you can see a church that's really dealing with examination if it's a church that's willing to deal with sin in the camp. And this was a church that was not dealing with sin in the camp, and yet they were saying they were coming to the Lord's Supper. How could they do that? Not only do we have individual sin that needs to be examined and confessed and dealt with in our private lives, but when there comes a time for the local body of Christ to see and know of sin in and among them that is actual and real and it's evident and it goes undealt with, then how can you come to the Lord's supper table and say we're coming in a corporate way and we're celebrating the death, the birth, the death, and the life of Christ? in a proper way. You can't do it. You can't do it. One writer says, to sin against the body and blood of the Lord Jesus is to sin against the very hope of salvation. He goes on and says, they also sinned against the body and the blood of the Lord by sinning against Christ's church, or more particularly, against the poor Christians who were not granted admission to the Lord's Supper. So not only do they have sin in the camp, The sexual sin, the issues of that sexual sin, they had issues of submission and dealing with submission in the context of the church and the life of the church. They had issues of dealing with one another and not even being gracious and kind to one another in the church. One writer says, to sin against those for whom Christ shed His blood and gave His body is to sin against Christ Himself. See, they had failed to recognize the implications of the supper's corporate nature. When you come to the supper table, you may come, but if you're not recognizing the supper rightly, more than likely you won't be recognizing it properly in its corporate nature. This is why There is credence given and command given for us to deal with issues between one another before we come to the table. If you're at aught with your brother, you need to go and solve it with your brother. heard of situations in the past where a person had some issue with one of their brothers or their sisters and they were unwilling to deal with that and they said, well, they should recognize it and come to me. What if they're ignorant and they don't see it or know it? Why would you not go to your brother? And how could you come to the Lord's supper table not having gone to your brother and dealing with whatever ill you may have with them? You may find that your ill is well warranted or you may find that your ill is unwarranted. You may find that it was unwarranted because it was not meant in that way, or you may find that it's unwarranted because it's not biblical sin. Or you may find that your brother or sister had no idea, and they ask your forgiveness right then and there. You see, the Lord's Supper table has a corporate nature to it. It shows the very unity of Christ in the local body. You're not just coming to this table to say, individually, I'm fine with God. Individually, I'm fine with Christ. You're coming to this table to say, not only am I desiring to examine myself before Christ and to come in proper order before him that I would have confessed my sins to him and now I'm coming in celebration. But you're also saying, I'm coming because I'm one in unity with my brothers and sisters who come to this table with me in corporate worship. So before you ever get to some individual context in looking at the Lord's Supper and what Paul is dealing with in the Church of Corinth, you have to deal with the corporate nature of it. This is what many have lost in the broad evangelical church in their worship. Not only do they not come before the Lord in the Lord's Supper regularly in corporate worship, they very seldom celebrate the supper, and oftentimes there are great corporate issues in the life of the church that go undealt with. And then when they do come to the Lord's Supper, They never address those issues. And Paul is warning the church at Corinth, this is a problem. And you're bringing judgment on yourselves for the corporate part of it. Well, secondly, under this heading, they were not taking it in proper consideration of themselves before the Lord. There is an individual context, but you can't get to the individual until you deal with the corporate. They were not taking it, that is the Lord's Supper, in proper consideration of themselves before the Lord. The scripture tells them here that they must examine themselves. They must examine themselves as they come to the Lord's Supper and they must do so beforehand. Christian examination means to take serious consideration of your mind and heart according to God's word. I wanna say that again. Christian examination means to take serious consideration of your mind and heart according to God's word. God's word illumined by the spirit will teach you your heart. God's Word, illumined by the Spirit, will teach you your heart. You need to know your own heart. You need to see it before the Word of God. This is a problem for us as individuals. We are still, even as believers, struggling with the reigning flesh, and we will often think way too highly of ourselves. And Paul warns the church in Rome of that. Don't think too highly of yourselves. Be sober-minded, in Romans chapter 12. So what do we need to do? If we are to be those who are sober-minded, the most sobering thing that we can do is go before God in his word and have the word illumined by the spirit to teach us our own heart. It will show me my own pride. It will show me my own places of unrighteousness. It will show me my own places of where I just will not be humbled before God. It will also show me my own places. or I think I'm better than others around me. It will show me my places of self-righteousness. It will show me my places of being a Pharisee and looking at others as though they don't have the spirituality I do. We have to recognize that we are in need of the Word of God to deal with our own hearts first and foremost, for when it deals with our own hearts, it will then deal with our sin. So God's Word, illumined by the Spirit, will teach you your heart. God's Word, illumined by the Spirit, will teach you your sins. These sins are biblically defined sins, sins of the mind and sins of the body. The word is often very plain about the sins of the mind and sins of the body. Matter of fact, most often it's so plain about the sins of the mind and the body that we hate to read those words because it becomes very quickly convicting to us. Even when it states things in a positive sense of the fruit of the spirit, That the fruit of the Spirit is patience. I just get to that one word and realize, uh-oh. Thankfully, because it is the fruit of the Spirit and the Spirit deals with the souls of believers, over time he chastens us and works in us. And he grows us and strengthens us. And yet at the same time we know there are still times we have anger or we are impatient. This is why the word of God becomes so important to us. It will teach our hearts to us. It will teach our sins to us, the sins of the mind and the sins of the body, and it will lead us to examine ourselves properly before the Lord, even before we come to that table. that we would come giving thanks that we can confess our sins daily to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. You see the church at Corinth had forgotten all about that. They were so involved in what they wanted to do when they wanted to do it. They were so involved in the context of doing all these things in their own particular way for their own particular pleasure. They had put all of that aside. If they couldn't examine the blatant sin that was among them in the church of this sexual sin, how could they then examine themselves rightly? It's one of the great fears we have is when we start to deal with someone about their sin is they'll start pointing fingers back at us. And sometimes all we can say to them is, yes, that's true. You're right, I have sinned in that way. But I'm asking the Lord to deal with me. Are you asking the Lord to deal with you or are you just continuing in your sin? See. Corinth had not done any of that. They weren't examining themselves properly in a corporate way or in an individual way. Because had they been doing it in an individual way, they would have dealt with themselves and how they were dealing with the Lord's Supper and they would have dealt corporately right with the sin that was among them. One writer says Christians must scrutinize their motives and actions to see that they match the significance of the Lord's Supper. Several writers noted that this examination is to take place before eating and drinking. It's one of the reasons that the reading of God's word is so important to the people of God throughout the worship of God. As we worship, God's word is dealing with our souls and we are seeing things in our own hearts and minds and lives. Places that we're not trusting in the Lord. Places that we're not recognizing how sovereign God is. And he's wanting us to confess that to him even then and there. It doesn't mean that this examination though is some overboating of self-introspection to the point of putting oneself into the greatest depths and doldrums of depression. So it is in the past with people who have named the name of Christ, the ascetics who have taken themselves to great lengths and great degrees to prostrate themselves before God and put themselves into these doldrums and depressions and to say, I'm now examining myself. No, it is the kind of introspection that recognizes from God's word Not only I am a sinner, but my particular sins and I can bring those sins to God and confess them then and there and that the price has already been paid. And it brings me to a place of gratitude. It's the type of introspection that leads me to have joy with those around me as believers in Christ and an ultimate joy that my own sin has been dealt with and that the Spirit of God indwells the believer that I may move forward in fighting against that sin all the more. Out of a heart of gratitude for what Christ has done. This means that they must examine themselves in the context of the blood and body of the Lord. They must examine themselves in the context of the blood and body of the Lord. What if they're not examining themselves in that context? Well, failing to do so properly undercut the meaning of the Lord's Supper. This is what was happening in the church. They were failing to see this properly and it was undercutting the meaning of the Lord's Supper. I mean, think about it for a moment. You're gonna gather as a church under the name of Jesus Christ and the banner of Jesus Christ, and you're gonna talk about who Jesus is, and yet you're not gonna deal with any of the sin really among you, and then on top of that, you're gonna mistreat one another in the church, and then after all of that, you're gonna do all of these things in the context of coming to a meal and saying this is the Lord's Supper, when the Lord's Supper itself, the way they were taking it, was full of all kinds of sin and of itself. Isn't that doing away with the very meaning of the Lord's Supper? This is why Paul warns them, that they need to examine themselves. Because if you don't do it, he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself if he does not judge the body rightly. That phrase in verse 29 is somewhat debated. Some people take that individually and some people take it corporately. But I think there's a couple of different commentators who give a context to say it's a both and. For he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself if he does not judge himself rightly, yes, but if he does not judge the body as a whole rightly. One writer says he was warning participants to give proper consideration to the sanctity of Christ's body and blood because that was the focal point of the Lord's Supper. Are you taking into consideration when you see that bread, it's not just thinking about any piece of bread, it is a representation of Christ's body, what he did on this earth, being born of the Virgin Mary, living a perfect life, dying a sinner's death. When you take that cup, when you see that cup, do you remember the shed blood of Christ and all of the agony he suffered, that God's wrath was poured out onto him? If we see that rightly, we will see our sin for what it is. It was because of sin that Christ had to go there. It was because of sin that he had to come in the way that he did under the humiliation of dealing with men and women that would not know him like he should be known. Having to walk through the temptations of this earth and suffering the agony of the cross. If you take that flimpantly, you and I as individuals and corporately, we are bringing judgment upon ourselves because we have been given great knowledge of who the Son of God is. And we are coming to His table, the table and supper that He inaugurated, and we are taking it flippantly, thoughtlessly, carelessly, acting as if it's just any meal. And it's not just any meal, it's the supper of our Lord and Savior who lived and bled and died for his people. We do it in remembrance of him. or failing to do so, failing to see it properly, ushered in God's judgment among the Corinthian church. One writer says, Paul probably received information about illnesses in the church from messengers sent to him. Some in the church had died as a result of God's judgment against them. Now he goes on and he says, sickness and death do not always happen as a result of personal sin. They come to believers and unbelievers alike for many reasons. But in this situation, Paul had apostolic authority to support his pronouncement. What was that pronouncement? It was a pronouncement of judgment. He uses the word judge here multiple times. Judgment in the context of what is going on. He uses the word in the sense of them not understanding how to judge themselves rightly. It goes to show that we can't come to the Lord's Supper table thoughtlessly. Yes, here we do partake of the Lord's Supper each and every Lord's Day. But just because we do it each and every Lord's Day does not give us the right to take it thoughtlessly. Does not give us the right to live during the week as though we have no need to examine ourselves at any other time than just a few moments before the Lord's Supper table. We need to come to this table already thinking about how we would come before our Lord. Paul is making it plain in this pronouncement because of the ways of some of the people in the church they had actually become sick and some had even died. I think this is probably one of the more gripping parts of this letter. There's a lot of joyous things, there's a lot of theological things discussed, but this is one of the more gripping parts of the letter, this pronouncement to the people at Corinth. Some today would say, oh, that's just some Old Testament thinking that Paul had. Did Paul not understand? Had he not heard about Ananias and Sapphira? That was in the context of the new covenant. It was after the death and resurrection of our Lord. Now as the writer said earlier, that's not to say that every sickness is due to a lack of proper examination of our own lives. Not every death is due to that. Death is the enemy that's coming for all of us because of sin in and of itself. But Paul does give us an indication here that there are times that our sin can go so far and be so long undealt with that God can bring judgment and time upon it, even in our own bodies. In some sense, we can understand sometimes our sins of mind and body go so far that they do affect our bodies and they have consequences. And I think Paul says we need to recognize that as a judgment. He says, furthermore, if this keeps going on, not seeing this in an appropriate manner, failing to do so, squelched their ability to properly judge themselves. He said, you've gone so far now, you can't even properly judge yourself in the context of these things. And he's saying, you're going down a road, if you're not careful, that those who walk away from these things will show themselves to be apostate, that you never were believers. Because this is what unbelievers do. They walk around with scales over their eyes, and they can't properly judge their lives in the context of God's word. But that's what God has done through the Holy Spirit to the believer. He has opened our mind's eye that we can see His Word properly and judge our own sin properly as well as judge the sin of those around us properly according to God's Word. You're going so far down the road at this point, you're struggling even to judge yourselves properly. As one writer notes, Paul points to the value of judging ourselves. We should make a practice. He says, such is the force of the imperfect tense here, of distinguishing ourselves, i.e., distinguishing between what we are and what we ought to be. There can never be a time I come to a place in my life to say, you know what, I've arrived as a believer. I'm a really good Christian. More of you ought to know me better, because I'm just so good. Just come know me better. I'm just so wonderful. If we even have just a smidge of that, we need to stop it. If you have grown, you have grown by God's grace. If God can use you, he uses you by his grace. If you can be used for others to help another, to encourage another, or strengthen another, or to show another their sin, you can only do so by God's grace. You can't do it because you're that righteous in and of yourself. And if you think that way, you've forgotten the gospel. Well, let her see under this heading they must examine themselves to come in celebration of Christ. Ultimately, the Lord's Supper is about celebration. It's about joy. We come to the table. without examination and confession, and we cannot come in genuine thanksgiving of Christ's death. If we don't examine ourselves and we don't confess our sins, then we can't come in genuine thanksgiving. And isn't that one of the main portions of the Lord's Supper is to come in thanksgiving? Even the Lord Jesus began. As He took the bread and He broke it, He gave thanks. When we come to the table without examination and confession, we cannot come in genuine celebration of Christ's death and resurrection. Sadly, in the church today, we're either not examining ourselves at all and very little sin is being dealt with, or we've made up all kinds of sins to go along with the culture, and we're putting things on ourselves that the Bible doesn't even tell us to put onto ourselves, and we don't even celebrate the Lord's Supper anymore, and we have false joy in worship. It's all manufactured. The real Thanksgiving celebration and joy and worship comes from knowing Christ Jesus Himself according to the Word. Then we come to this table, we remember what He did, who He is, and what He did. That is the joy and the celebration for the Christian to come to the Lord's Supper table remembering who Christ is and what He did. Thirdly and lastly this morning, the Lord's Supper is taken with proclamation on their mind. The Lord's Supper is taken with proclamation on their mind. Stemming from what we just said, I'll leave you with two main observations. Number one, every time we take the Lord's Supper, we proclaim his death for his people. Every time we take the Lord's Supper, we proclaim His death for His people. And number two, every time we take the Supper, we proclaim His final return for His people. We proclaim His final return for His people. Now I wanna return to number one and give you just a few thoughts. Every time we take the Supper, we proclaim His death for His people. This means the one time act of Christ This one-time act of Christ is perpetually memorialized in the church. There should never be a time in the life of the church that the church is not focused on remembering who Christ is and what he did. This is how the church has gone so far out of its way and it has lost the gospel. The gospel has become good deeds. The gospel has become acting this way or acting that way. The gospel has become not acting one way and acting another way. And the scripture says that's not the gospel at all. The gospel is who Christ is and what He did. And through believing and trusting in Him, then all of the actions will be dealt with over time by the Spirit of God dealing with us, because the Spirit of God has regenerated the dead sinner, brought them to life in Christ, and He will continue to work in them over time, sanctifying them. But it is this one-time act of Christ, of his death on the cross, that is to be perpetually memorialized in the church. Why? Because it keeps us centered on the gospel. You lose the preaching of the gospel, and you lose the Lord's Supper, and you will lose the gospel. I know that sounds crazy. I know I've just stated something that just sounds nuts, but I put the two together. Central is the preaching of the Word and the worship of God, and yet at the same time, right underneath it is the Lord's Supper. There is nothing else that we can see the Lord Jesus himself in such a way inaugurate as he did preaching and the supper and baptism. These ordinances are meant for us in right understanding, but they're not just mere acts. They are for our good, our good that we may celebrate and enjoy who Christ is. Secondly, the one-time act of Christ is perpetually crystallized in the church. I mean that in the sense of it being preserved. The one-time act of Christ is perpetually crystallized in the church. There's all kind of texts that we can preach in the Bible. Some of them don't always explicitly have Christ named in them. But in the Lord's Supper, we can speak of Christ because he is crystallized in this perpetual supper, memorializing who he is. Doesn't mean that the Lord's Supper overtakes the preaching of the word. Some churches have done that and it's sad because they've lost the gospel because then just the act of the supper has become this thing that they do but it has little meaning to it because Christ is never preached. God's word is never really and truly preached. The Roman Catholics have given the idea of the Lord's Supper into its whole worship realm and the mass and created a whole worship realm that's not even biblical. And they've relegated the word of God to little more than a sideshow that means nothing to the people who hear it. This one-time act is right in line with God's word being preached, and it crystallizes the gospel in the church. Well, secondly, under this heading, every time we take the supper, we proclaim his final return for his people. When you come to the table, this is a proclamation of his resurrection. What more joy is there for us than a proclamation of the resurrection of our Lord? Because in his resurrection, this is a proclamation of the believer's hope of resurrection. When you take that cup and you drink it, it's in remembrance of Him, and in His blood He died, and yet we know on the third day He was raised from the dead. And through His resurrection, it gives the believer hope of resurrection. That that enemy death will overtake us. That enemy death, it will come against us. That enemy death, it will have its way on this earth, and yet, There's a coming day when the Lord Jesus returns and not one person will be left in the ground. And all those who are in Christ will be raised up to Him and they will be changed. They will be glorified before Him that they may enter before God safely and enjoy Him forever. We hate that enemy death. But don't we love our Lord and Savior who was raised from the dead and he defeated it. Paul has a whole section in this letter that goes right into that. I feel like preaching it now but I won't. This is a proclamation of his resurrection. It's a proclamation the believers hope of resurrection. And this is a proclamation of the second coming as the catalyst of the bodily resurrection. When you come to this table, you're saying Christ is coming again. This is who he is, this is what he did, and this is what he will do. And I believe it. So when you come to the table today, come in great joy and in celebration. Come understanding. You may examine yourself rightly before God's word, confessing your sin unto him, If you have not done that before, do it. But remember, you have every opportunity to confess daily. But if something is brought to mind that you need to confess, do it. But then come in great joy and celebration. Christ died for his people and the grave did not hold him down. Amen? Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we ask your mercy upon us, as we have heard from your word. May the spirit accompany the truth of your word, and that which was not appropriate be stricken from the record, that the minds and hearts of the believers and those in its hearing would be sealed in truth. that as we come to this table now, may we come appropriately, thoughtfully, and in the manner which is appropriate to what our Lord and Savior has done and is doing. It's in Christ's name we pray, amen.